OPI NUTCRACKER & THE FOUR REALMS COLLECTION SWATCHES AND REVIEW

Yay! The Limited Edition 2018 OPI Nutcracker and the Four Realms collection came in! And you know what? It’s wickedly holiday! Know what else? It makes me smile!

It’s many, many photos because it’s another whackin’ 12-shade collection – plus a further 3 glitter top coats. Is it too much? Maybe. But it’s stuffed with really, really good formulas so while it’s a huge amount of time sitting here, I think you’ll enjoy the results.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

opi nutcracker & the four realms swatches & review

OPI Dancing Keeps Me On My Toes – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Dancing Keeps Me On My Toes – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). This pretty is 2 coats and maybe I could have done 3 but I think 2 got me where I needed to go. For a pearly frost, she’s not as crazy-streaky as she could have been and that might just be because I have excellent frost-painting abilities. Your results may vary.

OPI Dreams on a Silver Platter over Dancing Keeps Me On My Toes – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Wow, that’s like a whole mouthful of shade name, huh? But whatever! This makes me happy! The glitter coat is the perfect payoff in a single coat. Does it matter that when you remove it you’ll have glitter bits in places no glitter bits should ever be? Nope. Worth it.

OPI Dreams on a Silver Platter over Lavendare to Find Courage – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Lookit that! More holiday festivus! Tell me that’s not just the perfect amount of glitter payoff in one coat.

OPI Toying With Trouble – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Toying With Trouble – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Yes, it’s a pink you’ve seen a bunch of times, but if you don’t have one yet, this is the one for you. It’s a magnificent formula that goes on like buttah in 2 quick coats. Could you run out the door in 1? Sure, but 2 will give you a more finished look.

OPI Dreams on a Silver Platter over Toying with Trouble Mattified – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). I had to do it. And I’m not even a little sorry that I did.

OPI Berry Fairy Fun – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Berry Fairy Fun – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). 2 coats! Huzzah! My first thought was Suzi & the 7 Düsseldorfs, but on closer inspection of the two, Berry Fairy Fun has more micro-flakies and is actually a goodly amount brighter. I guess my memory just ain’t what it used to be.

OPI Dreams Need Clara-fication – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Dreams Need Clara-fication – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). She’s lovely, but just a little thin. You’ll need a steady hand and less on your brush than you think. Depending on your application technique, you may or may not need a third coat. This right here is 2 and if I look at it long enough, I can see slight visible nail lines. Not a deal-breaker though because…

OPI Tinker, Thinker, Winker? over Dreams Need Clara-fication – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Oooh! Is dat a holo top coat? Yep. But if you’re an indie lover, you’ve already been spoiled and the holo in this one is not so great. In the bottle, this stuff looks like it’ll be sumthin’, but once it’s out on the nail, it fails to impress. It silvers out and obscures the base so if you’re going to use it, test it over whatever shade you’re thinking of slapping on as the base, k? You’ll see what I mean.

OPI Gold Key to the Kingdom over Envy the Adventure – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Huh. I think it’s possible this top coat is actually a little on the matte side so I added top coat and holy moly! This ain’t my jam, but if it’s yours, it’s pretty whack!

OPI Candied Kingdom – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Candied Kingdom – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). OPI is just good at red. That’s all I got. Also, I don’t remember if this is 1 coat or 2. Oops, bad note-taker, Karen. Bad.

OPI Ginger’s Revenge – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Ginger’s Revenge – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Oh hey! Is that a little cuticle bloop on your middle finger, Manigeek? Uh, yes. But it’s not my fault! I swear it! I had some weird brush things happen in a few of these shades and when I pulled the brushes and cleaned ‘em off, it was like they only had ½ the bristles they were supposed to.

That's not a regular OPI pro-wide. Nope.

See? Not my fault. I have sent notification of the brush oddities to OPI’s PR and am waiting to hear back. I’ll let you know if these brushes might be found in the wild or if they’re just in my samples.

OPI Black to Reality – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Black to Reality – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). That’s 2 coats with another weirdly skinny brush. I heart this shade. I heart it I heart it I heart it.

OPI I Pull the Strings over Black to Reality – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI I Pull the Strings over Black to Reality – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Do I need to tell you this is the rose gold glitter coat or can you kinda tell? Oh! And again, it’s almost a demi-matte. It totally requires top coat to pop the shine. Or, if you’re me…

OPI I Pull the Strings over Black to Reality mattified – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Just go full out matte! Whut? Tell me that’s not amazeballz for holiday!

OPI Dazzling Dew Drop – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Dazzling Dew Drop – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). 3 coats. This had one of the weird brushes in it so I’m not saying the regular OPI ProWide brush would have done it in 2 or anything like that. Both you and I know that I can paint with a dead twig, so I’m guessing this would be 3 coats either way.

OPI Dreams on a Silver Platter over Dazzling Dew Drop – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). I do like to mix me some silver and gold. I don’t really know, why but there you are. I really dig this combo and I think that of the 3 glitter coats, this one is my favourite.

OPI March in Uniform – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI March in Uniform – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). It’s nurple! What’s nurple? It’s navy/purple. It’s an actual shade as described by Manigeek. It’s also wickedly hard to shoot because my super-expensive, ridiculously high end, professional camera equipment (okay fine, it’s an iPhone 6 – not even an S) doesn’t like to capture blurples or nurples. Just believe me when I tell you it’s navy purple, k?

OPI 18k White Gold & Silver Top Coat over March in Uniform – Holiday 2013/2018 (above). Oh hey! That’s not a top from this collection! But it’s one of my favourite OPI holiday top coats of ever and this is my post so I can do whatever I want! Wheeeee!!!

And that’s it! That’s all she wrote!

Oh. it’s not. Hold on. I forgot something…

OPI Tinker, Thinker, Winker? – Nutcracker Holiday 2018

OPI Tinker, Thinker, Winker? – Nutcracker Holiday 2018 (above). Punched directly in the face with bright sunlight, this thing shows great! But I don’t live in direct bright sunlight and I can’t shoot holo with the natural light at my desk. My windows don’t pop me any rainbows so I use my crap Ikea lamp and a black background. The result is marginal rainbows (with a side of lobster hands) but them’s the breaks, kids.

OPI Tinker, Thinker, Winker? over Unfrost My Heart

Here’s OPI Tinker, Thinker, Winker? over Unfrost My Heart (above) the way I think OPI meant it to be. I’m not a fan of it straight up so I used a silver base. By itself, because I do such thin coats, it takes me 5 coats to get fully opaque. That’s an unnecessary amount of coats. If you’re as lazy (or efficient!) as I am, find a sparkly silver and slap the Tinker over it. Is it worth the purchase now? You decide!